Shadow of Nothing
by TheRenoApocalypse
Summary: After being gone for two and half years, Naruto is faced with the painful memories that Konoha re-awakens inside him of his best friend. So, it's a good job he has a simple, year long mission to Hogwarts to distract him right?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** _I own nothing but the plot._

**Authors Note**: _All right, I have decided, after much inner debate, to re-revise this whole story. There are going to be more prominent changes from the last time I revised the chapters and some of it will greatly impact the story. One being that this is now set in the Shippuden era and Sasuke DOES leave. I think this will be crucial to later parts of the story. Also, I want to start things fresh with this story so it's going to start right after Naruto gets back from his training with Jiraya, so when the Shippuden series starts. Also, if things stay the same then I say that this story is going to be around 30 chapters long, give or take. _

**Shadow of Nothing**

**Chapter One**

_**"**__I've become so numb, I can't feel you there  
Become so tired, so much more aware  
I'm becoming this, all I want to do  
Is be more like me and be less like you__**"**_

_**Linkin Park - Numb**__**.**_

Two bright orbs of energy flashed in unison, illuminating the decrepit darkness of the area around them. The cliff sides stood proudly, over the large expanse of the lake, caging in the two spheres of light; the balls of energy creating a shimmer on the smooth undisturbed surface.

"Chidori!"

"Rasengan!"

Two voices called simultaneously, each promising death or a large amount of pain. The darkness seemed to ebb away as the spheres became brighter and more foreboding in its own way. The lights seemed to increase in strength and soon, you could see the shadows of the two figures that wielded this unimaginable power.

One of the boys had an unmistakeable orange jumpsuit on and bright blonde hair that usually matched his unwavering optimistic attitude. His eyes shone crimson with slits for pupils, replacing the usual cerulean colour that stood in place, upon each cheek rested three whisker marks that were darkening with every second that passed.

Around him was a shimmering red energy that could be described as a layer of protective energy taking the form of a fox, which only added to his already fox like appearance. His finger nails had elongated into what was seemingly claws. And there, under the brush of his delicate blond hair, stood one of the most important things in this boy's life, something that completely altered his way of living and separated him from the civilians. Resting coolly on his head lay a forehead protector with the symbol of the leaf engraved into it; identifying him as a leaf village shinobi. In the palm of his hand was a light blue swirling energy that looked like it could do a great amount of damage.

The other figure however, looked like the epitome of evil. He had long grey hair that cascaded down his back, great hand like wings jutted out of his shoulder blades, allowing him to propel himself towards his victim. Navy blue shirt adorned his torso with the ever famous Uchiha symbol emblazoned on the back. White shorts that were filled with grime coated his legs. His eyes were almost indescribable, completely black with little yellow circles for pupils, and an unusual black marking that spread across his nose. In his palm lay something that looked more deadly than the figure itself; a crackling blue orb that filled his open palm, looking suspiciously like lightening.

The grey haired figure suddenly propelled himself forward with a new boost of strength, heading straight for the other figure who now had the hand with the energy outstretched towards the other figure. It only took a second, and if you blinked you would have missed it. A great blindingly white light covered the area as the grey haired boy plunged his hand into the chest of the orange clad shinobi just as the blond let his weapon falter, giving the other boy the advantage he needed to end it. As soon as the hand sunk deep into the flesh, a flicker of remorse shimmied over the figures features.

When the light dissipated, it was to reveal a tragically beautiful scene, the kind of scene in a movie that makes you cry yet admire the sheer beauty of the graphics. It was to reveal the great Naruto Uzumaki, the world's number one knucklehead ninja, on the floor, eyes shut peacefully and unmoving. The last rays of sunshine rained down on his tan face as they slowly turned into darkness.

A few feet away from the unmoving figure, was Sasuke Uchiha, in all his composed and handsome glory. Panting heavily, as his features became normal once more. His black hair stood perfectly, unruffled and undisturbed as his usual spikes adorned the back of his head. Gone were the wings, gone were the monsters eyes, gone were the strange markings on his face. Now, the only evidence left of his encounter was the harsh pants he was producing as he was on the verge of hyperventilating, the blood stains that covered his entire front and the holes in the back of his precious Uchiha shirt. Yellow eyes were replaced with the usual cool onyx ones, revealing no remorse for making his best friend be in this condition as he walked away and leaving the fate of the blonde undetermined and his broken headband which was his only remaining tie to the place he once called home.

* * *

The memory had been plaguing Naruto for years, haunting his dreams and revealing itself at the most inconvenient of moments. If Kakashi hadn't found him when he had, would he even be here right now? The question had kept him up for many nights, staring blankly at the sky above him trying to remember what it felt like to be young, naïve and surrounded by friends. He often found himself staring outside at the young children that were happily playing various games with multiple friends and he couldn't help but envy them every time he looked at their smiling faces.

But being back in Konoha? Being back in Konoha was like a constant reminder of his failures; His failure to bring Sasuke back when he went on his mad quest for power, his failure to ever attract the positive attention of the only girl he had ever crushed on… but the failure that he most painfully aware of now was the fact that he graduated the Academy nearly three years ago and was still a simple Genin. That failure was practically mocking him everywhere he went. Shikamaru and Neji were both Jounins already, with the rest being at Chuunin level at least. Well, except one… the one person who knew what it felt like to be hated by their own village… Gaara… he had made it to Kazakage in the short time he was gone. Everyone… they had achieved so much… and he felt so dull in comparison.

Shaking his head to clear it of the angst ridden thoughts suddenly bombarding their way through his brain, Naruto looked down from the roof in which he had perched himself on, the sun slowly crawling its way into view as the morning approached. He waited another moment before he stood and stretched his stiff limbs, looking down in to the slowly awakening street below him.

Deciding it was probably best to have a small breakfast before heading down to see Grandma Tsunade, Naruto threw himself expertly over the side of the building and landed with a new found elegance on the ground below him.

When he made it to the Hokage tower, the sun was fully up and shining down at a bustling village preparing for their day ahead. As usual, he completely ignored the shouts from the secretary that were reprimanding him for bursting into the Hokage's office with such disrespect. He rolled his eyes at her continued shouts and with his usual cheeriness, threw the door open to Tsunade's office.

The older blonde was currently reading intently from a piece of paper that was resting carefully in front of her. Her eyes met his when she heard the sound of the door swing shut and she gave a small smile to the boy. She shuffled some of the stacks of papers around on her desk before addressing him.

"Naruto, I know you haven't been back long and are probably eager to spend some time at home, I have a mission for you…"

At that moment Sakura came through the door with angry elegance that shouldn't even be possible. The pink haired kunoichi was fiercely glaring daggers at the window in which Kakashi himself had just appeared.

"I apologise Lady Tsunade for my lateness, someone was late once again and forgot to mention to me that we had a meeting with you!" It was obvious the woman was infuriated and Naruto subconsciously backed up and away from her, he knew well enough what he wrath felt like and was in no mood to feel it today.

"I understand Sakura, please, take a seat. Like Kakashi has… eventually informed you, Team Kakashi has been assigned a new mission. This mission is of extreme importance but not of utmost danger as of yet, which is why it has been categorised as a B rank mission. The mission is going to be a long term one, lasting one whole school year. The four of you will be going undercover into a school called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry… I trust you both know about the existence of a world beyond the hidden countries am I correct?" After receiving an affirmative nod of the head from both, the Hokage continued. "Your job, essentially, is to protect three students of Hogwarts whilst keeping an eye out on any suspicious goings on at the school. Understood?" Again at receiving a nod, she pressed on. "I will have a file sent to you containing the full brief of your mission. You'll be leaving early tomorrow morning so make sure you pack all of your essentials and are well equipped for the year ahead."

Realising this was a dismissal, the two stood up and were about to walk out of the door when Sakura turned back around and faced the Hokage once more.

"Hold on… Lady Tsunade… You said the four of us will be going undercover… who is the fourth member of our squadron for this mission?"

Naruto turned his head in surprise towards Tsunade, not quite having picked up on that small detail; too busy trying to catch the more important details of the mission.

"Oh, yes, right, of course! How could I forget? The council assigned a fourth member to your squadron last night, not only for this mission but as the fourth and final part of Team Kakashi. His name is Sai and you'll both meet him tomorrow morning when you head off to your mission. Now off you go, all of you." She added to a silent Kakashi.

As soon as he left the Hokage's office, Naruto hurried away from Sakura with a quick 'See ya' and headed straight to his apartment. It was very against Naruto's nature to be this prepared for a mission, but honestly, he couldn't wait to escape the place that held so many memories, good and bad. He carefully folded up his clothes (all of which he winced at since he had grown to hate the colour orange so much) and packed them neatly into the bag that he had used very recently on his time away with the Pervy Sage.

Naruto was hyper aware of how much he had changed in the two and a half years he had been gone but it was the only way that he was able to focus without getting upset and distracted when thinking of his best friend. He had become numb, immune to certain aspects of his life and he had learned to store away all of his feelings for the sake of his training and his utter dedication to bring Sasuke back. He may have given up on himself, but one thing that Naruto knew for sure was that he would never, ever give up on Sasuke. Even if that meant mirroring the boys former self to save himself the pain and keep himself focused on his task… one that he was determined not to fail.. Again.

* * *

A light knocking upon her door awoke the Hokage suddenly from her usual afternoon nap on the piles of paperwork that never seemed to decrease.

"Come in."

Shizune came in smiling brightly … that is… until she saw the empty sake bottle that was lying next to desk where it had obviously rolled during Tsunade's slumber.

Aww heck. She really needed to be more careful when consuming the comforting mind numbing drink.  
"Before you start you're lecture on me, I'm not sorry. Now, tell me what you came and woke me up about."

The dark haired woman huffed slightly at that but quickly regained her composure.

"Sai is here to see you, Lady Tsunade. Not that I wanted to interrupt your daily afternoon nap or anything." The young woman daringly stated sarcastically. The blonde just glowered before motioning to send the man in.

"Lady Tsunade, I hope I am not bothering you." The dark haired man stated emotionlessly, Tsunade just gestured for him to continue. Her head was really starting to hurt now. "I had a small enquiry about the mission you assigned to me. What types of activity should I be monitoring the Malfoy boy on?"

"The letter I received wasn't clear but it vaguely hinted to the fact that our client believes this boy is about to be involved with something dangerous but can hopefully be brought over to the right side before anything permanent should happen. I suppose that would be your task, to show the boy to the right side."

Sai nodded in understanding, not quite able to help himself from once again making a comparison between a certain someone and the young Mr Malfoy… especially after reading over the file he had received.

Strange how two people could be so alike yet so completely different.


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N: Hey… It's revised… Yet again. I figured I would stay with the Goblet of Fire era and maybe do a sequel if this ends up being successful. There's going to be three main pairings in this fic which I have now decided on… Unfortunately, that's all you're going to get out of me for the time being ;)**

**Shadow of Nothing**

**Chapter Two**

_"The Warning,_

_To the people,_

_The good and the evil__.__" _

_**30 Seconds to Mars – This Is War**_

There weren't many things he could be completely certain of at the moment as he ducked in between panicked bodies, desperately seeking out the comforting call of his friends amongst the chaos; what had started out as a fantastic day had soon gone to hell when _they_showed up. The screams had been the only factor to alert them of the oncoming danger. They had been lucky that Mr Weasley had been outside at the time since all of them were too busy joking around to notice anything amiss.

Flames engulfed the once peaceful camp site, casting eerie elongated shadows of the people responsible for this mess. Three bodies were hung upside down in mid-air as the conductor hurled vile insults at the defenceless family of muggles. Harry felt the need to help burning through his very soul, but the crowds of panicking Quidditch fans was relentless in their assault and Harry was caught in the current of the moving bodies.

Very soon, Harry found himself meeting the floor hard as some panicked individual pushed him to the ground in their haste. He desperately scrambled to return to his feet but before he could more than a few yards, a careless foot met his temple and he was greeted with darkness.

* * *

The first thing he was aware of when he came to was the pounding headache in his skull, closely followed by the realisation that there were voices coming from somewhere nearby to him. He did not dare move in case he was in the line of sight by whoever it may be there… friend or foe. He was glad for this decision when the voices raised and he could clearly distinguish every word of their conversation.

"The Dark Lord will return! Do not doubt our faithful Master you pathetic wretch!" A gruff voice echoed around the site.

"Oh yes, I am sure your Lord is all high and mighty but he isn't here right now Is he? What we offer, we are sure will be of great value to you and your Lord, but we need something in return." The voice sent shivers down his spine, not just because of the obvious subject there but also because of the harsh mocking tone that was used to accompany it.

"You can help us achieve our goal. We can help you achieve yours." The silky smooth voice had the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. This really wasn't a great conversation to be eavesdropping on, whether intentionally or not.

He couldn't bear not being able to see the mysterious group, so ever so slowly he opened his eyes a fraction. Peering through his eyelashes he could barely make out four figures, two of which were dressed in black robes with large red clouds upon them and high collars that hid their mouth from view. The other two stood in black robes and silver masks as they conversed with the mysterious figures.

"What makes you think we trust you?" For the second time that night Harry felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck as he recognised the horribly familiar voice of Lucius Malfoy.

"You can't, that's why this is so fun for us. If you don't help us, we will kill you. If you help us then bail on us, we will kill you. If you even think of making your master kill us before you hold up your end of the deal, guess what? We will kill you. I guess you don't have a choice in the matter then ey?" The sadistic voice of the other man rang out sharply in the silence once again. He couldn't quite see from this angle but it appeared that the blonde haired one was smiling maniacally at the frightened Malfoy and his companion.

He must have breathed a little too loudly or shifted without realising for the two strangers turned towards where he lay, almost invisible in the darkness. With a sudden rush of adrenaline, the raven haired teen pushed himself up and began running in earnest, desperate to get away from the strange men.

He felt himself crash into someone and realised with utmost horror that it was one of strange men whom were arguing with Malfoy, His black hair cascading almost gracefully down his back, The same man with piercing red eyes and comma's that surrounded his pupils. At that moment he heard the unmistakeable sound of crushing bones and noticed with terror that it was his own wrist that was in the clutches of the strange man.

Before he could scream in pain the man disappeared.

"Harry!" His name was echoed by a number of different recognisable voices and he sighed in relief. His friends were here.

"STUPEFY!" Several voices called at once and he instinctively ducked, taking Ron and Hermione with him as the red lights collided just above their heads.

"Enough! That's my son!" The familiar voice of Arthur Weasley called out as he came bustling out of the trees with his wand pointed at the other figures stood in a circle surrounding them.

"Harry, Hermione, Ron what happened?"

"I think… The people… they were discussing Voldemort… saying that he was going to come back and the guys with the red clouds on their cloaks said that they would help them achieve their goal if the others helped them to achieve theirs. He was so … quick." Harry knew he wasn't making much sense but his heart was still racing from the encounter and his breath was coming out in pants as though he had just run a marathon.

* * *

"How could the Ministry be so stupid?! I saw them! I heard them talking about bringing Voldemort back! Why would I lie?" Harry exclaimed gesturing wildly with his hands. Currently, himself, Ron and Hermione were in Ron's room at the burrow, a new edition of the daily prophet sat in between them.

"Honestly Harry, the Ministry just doesn't want things like that spreading around and causing chaos. I'm not saying what they are saying is right." Hermione went seeing Harry about to argue back. "But if you were in a position where someone was stating that Voldemort was coming back, would you tell the world on the off chance it was true and face the chaos that would ensue all over the wizarding world, or would you attempt to quash all rumours about such a thing until It was certain?"

Harry thought over Hermione's words. Of course she had a point, but he couldn't handle the prophet reporting that the allegation about Voldemort's return was caused by fear and stress after the incident at the world cup, thus making out that he was some coward that had temporarily lost his mind. He twirled his wand in his hand thoughtfully, which Mrs Weasley had taken the liberty of fixing after he returned from the match.

"You said that that bloke who attacked you had red eyes right?" Ron asked suddenly, pulling Harry out of his musings. After a nod in confirmation, Ron continued. "Could he have been a vampire? I've heard that they have red eyes, are pale and travel at fast speeds."

Hermione shook her head, "No, if that was true then Harry would have some form of bite. If it were a vampire, the person wouldn't have fled when he had a source of food right in front of him, he would have just indulged in it. It's not in their nature to pass up an opportunity such as that, regardless of whether or not they were about to get caught. Besides, they were discussing helping each other achieve their goals, what goal could a vampire possibly have besides food? No, it doesn't make sense… It must have been something else."

Harry was starting to get tired of this conversation already so he quickly changed topics, not wanting to talk anymore about that night. But before he could start his sentence, the Twins poked their heads through the door of the room.

"Hullo Harry, Hermione, Ronnikens." One of the twins greeted, Harry thought it might have been Fred. Both grinned manically at Ron's responding blush to his nickname.

"What do you two want?" Ron asked rudely, obviously trying to distract the attention away from his burning ears.

"Awww ickle Ronnikens, is that any way to speak to your elders? And besides, we came here to escape the wrath of mum."

"Yeah, she just discovered our little experiments in our room… We did warn her not to go in there."

"Experiments?" Harry asked curiously.

"Yes my dear youngling-who-lived! Fred and I decided to use our intellect for the good of the wizarding world by presenting Weasley's Wizards Wheezes!"

The twins went on to explain their plans of opening up a joke shop after they left school and Harry listened intently, some of the things they were planning on making sounded really complicated but really useful in some cases and Harry knew it wouldn't be long before they cause a world of chaos with their products.


End file.
